A New Life
by Yue-eternal
Summary: [AU] Non existent Cloud Strife has been in love with popular Leon. Because of his nerdy looks, no one spared him even one look. Then Yuffie came into the picture and in comes Cloud with a new face and a new love life. [LeonCloud]
1. Transformation

**A New Life**

Disclaimer: I do not own the Kingdom Hearts.

Summary: Non-existent Cloud Strife had been in love on popular Leon. Because of his nerdy looks, no one spared him even one look. Then Yuffie came into the picture and in comes Cloud with a new face and a new love life.

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Squall Leonheart. The person of his affection. And the most popular of all populars. Dark, tall and handsome, Squall Leonheart fitted them all. He was the most popular guy of Radiant High other than Sephiroth. The two would always walked together in a group with nearly more than half of the whole student population (boys and girls) stalking behind them. Squall was the most admired student of the group.

Not only he had good looks, he was always the top student with top grades and was the male of every girls' and boys' dreams. Even though he was cold, distant and preferred to be actually left alone, none seemed to fear him except a few. Girls fawned over him and even tried many ways to get the male to notice them.

Some even crammed their way into his classes and spread plenty rumors that he or she was currently dating with the handsome brunette, which Squall had declared there was no such thing in an clearly irritated tone. He was after all the talk of the school other than Sephiroth.

And of course, last but not least, he had his very own fan club with fan girls plus boys having meetings about the hot brunette. They talked about his latest fads and lots of other things about him much to Squall's disgust. They even learned that the brunette hated being called Squall and preferred to be called Leon instead of that name. None knew why but that won't take too long to find out. That was why the brunette hated going near the group.

And in entered the school's most picked-on nerd, Cloud Strife who was also a part of the 'I Love Leon' Committee. The boy actually had to beg his way into the committee. Because of his nerdy looks, most teens in school never gave him much of a 'pleasant' welcome. He was bullied, picked on or even better, of non-existent by the whole student body. After all, Cloud was among the least fortunate one and he was already used to everything he encountered in the school.

Not only that he was a bookworm, his low grades didn't help much either. To top it all off, he was skinny, not that tall as Leon and not that good-looking as him too. His mop of blonde hair had been brushed flat against his head and his blue deep-sea eyes hidden behind large and thick horn-rimmed glasses with no thanks to his mother. The way he wore the school's uniform was uptight with a pair of trousers which looked too big for his size.

So where was he now? Right, hiding timidly behind a pole just to steal glances at the ever so popular Leon. Not that people could blame him for it. It had become a famous obsession lately for fans to do this so what made him different from the others? Face a tainted pink, Cloud stared dreamily on, studying the ice prince and picturing him in many ways. Leon smiling at him. Leon hugging him. Leon kissing him. And last but not least, Leon claiming him…

Startled at his own dirty thoughts, the blonde quickly shook his head, his face now turning as red as a tomato. Cloud knew clearly well that a cute guy like Leon won't even talk to him much less even sparing him one small look. After all, he was one of the least favored students in the community. Unlike Leon, Cloud didn't have any friends. Only one. And that was just his cousin, Yuffie Kusaragi.

Yuffie, as a child had vowed and dreamed that she could take over Cloud's love life much to the blonde's protests and dismay. Cloud remembered how she would rant on and on about her favorite cousin's wedding should be like and as long as she was the wedding planner, she could just die and gone to heaven. That was also why Cloud wouldn't let the raven-haired girl knew of his love for the ice prince, no matter what.

Or else, it wouldn't have been pretty for him.

He continued to stare and study his prince. Every short movement he made made the blonde gasped softly under his breath on how gorgeous he was. It was really a breathtaking view for one Cloud Strife. There were times when Cloud would actually stand up, walk away and say hi. But there were also times when the blonde would look at himself in the mirror grimly.

He looked pathetic for pete sake and he hated himself for it.

The school's bell suddenly rang, snapping the blonde out of his thoughts, reminding him vaguely of the consequences for being late for Mr. Valentine's class. He winced at the again sudden reminder of Valentine's angry and furious face before turning on his heels, and dashed across the hall, bumping into several students along the way.

He could fantasize about his dreamy hunk later and focused on class. But that was seemingly impossible for Cloud since he was in the same class with Leon. And most importantly, his seat was just two seats away from his prince. Maybe that was the cause for Cloud to fidget nervously every time in Leon's presence. Hey! Everything was possible for now. Who knows?

------

Yuffie Kusaragi was sick. The always bubbly and full of energy girl wasn't sick due to an unknown illness but she was sick and dead tired of her cousin's obvious behavior. She had been watching Cloud for a while. Well, you could say it was a long time ago and until now, it was still the same. Nothing ever changed.

Her cousin was as timid and shy as ever. Not that she minded since she was actually the one who loved to tease Cloud about his wacky appearance. And she was also the one who forced Cloud to vow with her on that wedding thing. Yuffie wouldn't hesitate to even roll her eyes at her cousin. For once, he was an awful liar.

And for twice, he was even worse at hiding his own feelings. For many times already, the raven-haired girl had caught the teen in his acts, sneaking glances at Leon and writing love-sick notes about the ice prince. Puh-lease. As if she didn't know what was going on in Cloud's head.

There was one time when she accidentally stumbled across Cloud's diary, skimming through the contents. At first, she was bewildered at the fact that her cousin was gay but then instantly, she was turned into a gay fan girl. And is worst came to worst, she would have to break her resolution to buy a car into buying a new camcorder.

After all, she was quite confident at the fact that there was a possibility that the two would end up together. As long as she was on the job that is. Besides, the little devil knew that Leon was gay and not that clueless on these kind of stuffs so her work would be much more easier then. The blonde for once had frankly surprised her. She would never have guessed that her little cousin was now in love.

Cloud wasn't interested in girls or boys if that even mattered in the first place. She had a feeling he was only destined to married his comics about Captain Undies-pants. Err…or was it underpants? Whatever. As long as Cloud now was fully aware of his feelings, she wouldn't start to worry about the blonde's future life.

Fiddling with her pen as she failed to listen to Valentine's lecture, she cast a satisfied look towards the blonde whom by what she knew was currently struggling to make up his mind about whether to approach Leon or not. She smiled inwardly. This could pose quite of a challenge but she was confident in her skills. From what she had heard, Leon also was currently on the search for someone special in his life. After all, she wasn't proclaimed as the best matchmaker in the school for nothing.

But first things first, she had got to do something about the blonde's look. The glasses had got to go. And something must be done about the poor teen's outfit as well as the hair, it was giving her the goose bumps. Biting her lips, it would be a hard time trying to persuade her cousin about it though due to his overly-stubborn feature.

She would have to talk to him later, during lunch or perhaps, tricking him into coming to her house after school. Worst came to worst, she would have to kidnap her own cousin and held him captive in her house until she's done with him.

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"No," was the sudden and solid reply.

Of all the things to get stubborn in, Yuffie just had to give the blonde credit on it. The raven-haired girl had been trying her best to persuade the blonde into coming over to her house for a new change in his lifestyle but Cloud dismissed the idea fast and solid, not giving the girl time to explain herself out.

"No! My mom will kill me! You know she hate these things!"

The girl sighed dramatically and shook her head slowly. It was true that Cloud's mother was being overly-protective of her own son. She thought of the teenagers nowadays as a bad influence on the future's generation and always took her sweet time to lecture Cloud on what to do and what to not do, just so that her son won't be engaged in any indecent activities.

"I said no, Yuffie. And that's final!"

Cloud strife, currently in love with Leon, shook his head on what Yuffie had explained to him. His mother would never let him hear the end to this if she found out but that didn't stop Yuffie on what she had to say, just to make her cousin took part in her little get together project.

Twirling on her toes, she drawled on, "Aww…and I was only trying to help you with your problem…." Her voice trailed off, resisting the urge to laugh at how Cloud's ears had perked up at her statement. "But it's not my problem if you continue with your love-sick illness."

Cloud, shocked and face reddened at that sudden comment, abruptly stood up from his seat, dragging the cheering inwardly girl to a place in the school in which was currently unoccupied by anyone at that moment. He glared as Yuffie continued to giggle loudly, not bothering to hide the fact that she knew something about it.

"All right, Yuffie. Speak." The blonde growled dangerously, folding his arms, his eyes glaring at the girl.

"I took a teensy bitsy peek in your diary. Honestly! That's all I did!" She laughed sheepishly, shuffling her feet uncomfortably.

"YOU WHAT?!"

"Ehehehe?" She chuckled nervously, wincing at the blonde's outburst. "It was just a small peek."

"You looked into my diary without my permission?! Yuffie! How could you!"

"Look at it this way, Cloudster. If I didn't, you'll be stuck scribbling your love for Leon over for years."

Cloud blushed at the comment. "That's not the point! The point is that you-"

"-will be coming home with me later. I called your mom and she said yes to our little study session and won't mind about you staying over for months." She interrupted, mentally cheering at how her plan was advancing.

"Wait! You even called my mom?! YUFFIE!"

The girl tilted her head innocently. "What?"

The blonde slouched down to his knees, groaning at the way his cousin was acting. He would have figured it out sooner or he would have chosen another way to hide his diary in somewhere better and safer. At least his mother didn't saw the scribbles or even bothered to indulge herself in her son's dairy or else, he would have died and gone to hell.

He was grateful for it. But! Of all the times to let Yuffie saw it! Darn, somehow, the blonde had a feeling that he was going to regret this. Yuffie smiled smugly before deciding it on herself. "I knew you would agree! Besides, don't you want to get Leon to notice you for once? I knew of a plan perfectly how…"

Cloud raised his head so his gaze met Yuffie's. And something told him that this was not one which he could look forward to in any occasions. But at least, the girl could help him with his love crisis. He did do anything just to make Leon noticed him even if it meant disobeying his mother and bringing himself into Yuffie's plan.

After all, it was a step closer to his dream. And after all, Yuffie was the best matchmaker in school.

"Why do I have a feeling that I am going to regret this…" He groaned grimly.

The raven-haired girl just shrugged.

"You won't. I'm sure of it. Besides, you can always revert back to your old self."

That statement had Cloud's gears turning. She was right. If he didn't like it, he could always revert back to his usual lifestyle, being bullied, being the least favored one and etc.

"Okay…I guess. But this time, no FUNNY business." He warned sternly.

The girl just nodded curtly in respond.

------

"A bit of this and a bit of that… There! All done!"

Yuffie immediately started on what she had planned earlier at once when Cloud stepped into her house. She had drastically dragged the boy into her room, locking the door tight to prevent any interruptions. She had taken the time to do the blonde's hair first. Cloud still wasn't sure about the whole thing. It was something new to him.

And he still had to admit it. Having a new look was already a temptation. But trying to make him look better and getting to knew Leon was more tempting. Yuffie had told him that loads of time ever since. He wondered to himself if Leon would even bother with him since he had saw one of the popular girls making a move on the brunette but received nothing except a cold hard glare, threatening to bite her head off if she went a few millimeters further near him.

Nonetheless, it was a huge step for him now so he wasn't too sure on making it. However, his cousin seemed to knew what she was doing. What on earth would his mother say if she saw him like this? Cloud grimaced at the thought but immediately shrugged it off as Yuffie declared that she was done. "Here. Put on these transparent contact lenses." She said, placing them in front of Cloud.

"What for? The glasses are already fine." The blonde asked curiously, opening the cases carefully.

"Your glasses? I threw them into the bin. It's probably burning in the dump right now." She chirped cheerfully. She was very satisfied at her new work.

Cloud wasn't happy at the idea. "What!! My mom will kill me now…Yuffie! Look at what you did!" He tried his best to suppress the urge to groan.

"I'm and I'm satisfied with it." Yuffie all but sang, pulling a few shirts out of her closet. "These belonged to my brother but he died in that car accident."

Cloud grimaced at the mention of Yuffie's brother's death. Zack was a good lad and a great friend. Whenever people started to bully him or even teased him, old Zack would always come to the rescue with a large grin on his face. And Cloud missed that face. He also missed the warm feeling which Zack would give him. It was a sad thing when the raven-haired boy lost his life trying to save Cloud in that car accident.

If he hadn't, Cloud would have died three years ago instead of his late cousin. Yuffie didn't blame Cloud for it or even her parents. They knew that Zack wanted the blonde to move on with his life and lived the twice of his years happily. And the blonde cherished it very much.

"So, you'll do in them. Put on these jeans and shirt with this coat on now."

Cloud nodded curtly and followed what Yuffie told him to do. Then, the girl appeared with a mirror and Cloud's jaws dropped to the ground. He was awe-struck. Standing before him in the mirror was no one other than himself, a side which he couldn't picture himself in. yuffie had did an most amazing job on his hair so they now had spike pointing in lots of directions.

As for his face, Yuffie had gotten rid of his glasses so his bright deep-sea blue eyes were now visible to everyone. It was a simple transformation but Cloud felt like a new teen with a new purpose in life.

"See? I told you!" She smirked in satisfaction. "By the way, get rid of your normal clothings and where something like this for a change. Zack would like you to have his clothes too since you were his best friend. Besides, you needed it."

Cloud wasn't able to express his thanks enough. "Thanks. But I can't wear them to school."

Yuffie slapped her forehead in defeat. "Come on, Cloud! Uniforms aren't compulsory. I think you're the only person who was stupid enough to follow that rule. No wonder you get pick on that much. Wear them or you'll find your love notes plastered on every walls on the school."

Cloud soon found himself glaring at the girl for the next two hours.

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Review ne? My second KH2 Fic Got this idea while I was thinking of a new inspiration for a HaoYoh oneshot but somehow turned KH-ish.


	2. Contacts

**A New Life**

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts although I wished to do so.

A/N: I have been busy lately so I didn't pay any attention to FFn or writing since Chinese New Year is just around the corner. Please forgive me and enjoy yourself with this chapter. I was planning to upload this on Valentine's Day but something came up so it had to be delayed until now. Happy Belated Valentine's Day!

* * *

She was the Mastermind of his life and he was just another one of her pawns to get what she wanted. He was being played right under his very nose but still, he couldn't free himself form the girl's evil wrath. She would skip around with glee at how her plan was working. And he would try hard not to dig a hole and buried his head in it.

But hell, this was very embarrassing.

It was just three minutes after he and Yuffie had entered the school. The raven-haired girl had managed to persuade his mother and even confessed everything. Even the matter on which Cloud was being bullied at school was not left out. But at least he didn't die by his mother's intensified glares and worried looks this morning.

The blonde had protested about starting his new look today. But the raven-haired girl arrived just in time to go off with Cloud to school. Sometimes, he really does hate that girl. She could see through everything.

And now, what?

Right, he was being stared at a lot by students whenever he passed by. It was humiliating. But Yuffie didn't seem to be disturbed by it. She just continued with her walk, humming gleefully at how her plan was working. Now, if only she could figure out how to make Cloud walked into the always-so-scheduled-tight Leon…

Cloud was trying madly not to let himself indulged in those faint whispers which he happened to overhear at that moment. The blush on his cheek deepened gravely as he heard what they called him.

"Who's that cute guy?"

"No idea. Never seen him around before."

"He does look a teensy bitsy familiar though."

"You must be imagining things. How come I don't know our school got a hottie like him?"

"Well, since you're a blockhead, you must have a hard time noticing your surrounding. I had to agree though, he IS hot and very cute."

"Face it, you like him."

"And you don't?"

"Shut up."

"What about the current hottest guy in school?"

"You mean Leon?"

"Who else?"

"If you considered comparing him and Leon, I did vote for Leon although I could go after that cutie anytime."

_Giggles._

_Leon._ His head spinning from all the attention he was getting ever since he set foot into the school. Millions of girls giggled at the corner whenever Cloud accidentally looked at them. A couple of guys drooled and waved at him while some other more….was that a flirt?! Cloud's blush deepened further as he shook his head, trying to set his mind on his cousin who was struggling to keep the way clear for him.

Maybe now, Leon could notice him. But who was he kidding? Looks won't change anything. He was still the bookworm he was before and will always be that bookworm. Only his outer had changed so will it influenced people that much? His reputation won't change no matter how he looked. That was one thing which Cloud had gave in since he decided on this.

But Yuffie seemed reassured. The girl promptly turned around and gave her cousin a small wink, grinning madly like she was hiding something.

Cloud tried to suppress the urge to groan loudly. Oh great. This was going to be a very long day.

* * *

Leon was brooding. He was, as usual, seated well behind his desk, fending off his admirers, crushes and (he shuddered softly) fan girls. Leon wasn't too happy at the fact that this happened almost everyday of his life. He wasn't also pleased at being nicknamed the current popular of all populars. Who came up with that lame nickname anyway?

It was messing with his tight schedules and Leon never liked that. He was almost tempted to murder his friend, Riku, for calling him to ask about basketball in the middle of doing his homework. But now, the rapid chatting and questions was making his head ached. He had tried to fend them off by glaring at them.

Sadly, it didn't work.

There were times when he wanted to shout at the horde to leave him the hell alone but that would spoil his image. After all, he DID have his reputation to maintain. There was definitely no way he would be caught dead screaming at the top of his lungs for them to shut the hell up. No way. He was after all, the school's prince and idol, Leon, always so calm and collected. Definitely not one to loose his cool so easily.

The brunette narrowed his eyes repeatedly before glancing at his watch and looked around the room every now and then as if he was searching for something or someone. He grunted irritably as a girl blocked his view, turning back again to face the window.

"Leon." The voice was soft and smooth. "Have you seen Yuffie?"

Leon snorted. "I guess not," came the smooth voice again, only this time, it was more of a dull tone. "You don't suppose she ran off with Rinoa and Tifa, do you? Those two are a rather bad influence on her."

Leon tried not to roll his eyes at the girl's comment, his eyes focused on a loose tree branch outside, watching it intently as if it was very interesting. _As if Yuffie need someone to teach her everything she knows… _

"You sure you haven't seen her? Where could she have gone to?"

Fidget. Fidget.

"Leon. Are you even listening to me? That girl will burn down the whole school if she feels like it!"

Twitch. Twitch.

'"Something bad must have happened. I can feel it… Leon! We got to go find her now!"

SLAM!

Everybody in the classroom stopped talking and adverted their view to one irritated Squall Leonheart. To say that he was not pleased at this was an understatement. The girl, surprised at the loud noise, jumped back a bit. "I'm going out for a walk." He stated firmly, glaring at the girls behind him. Dare they follow him again; there would be consequences before stalking out of the classroom coolly.

The girl blinked and sighed. "There goes my help."

"Aerith? What happened?"

The girl, Aerith blinked again, whirled on her heels to see Rinoa and Tifa who apparently just walked in. "We just saw sir icy walk out that door."

"Yeah." Rinoa said. "We even took the liberty of greeting the _prince_ formally. He just walked past us as if we don't even exist."

Tifa nodded. "Another one of his Leon mood?" She laughed. "If he's going to keep that up, there's no way he's going to get himself a girlfriend..."

"…or a boyfriend for that matter." Rinoa finished firmly.

Aerith smiled weakly, gazing at Leon's direction and went back to look at her two friends who was now criticizing Leon and his little attitude problem. The flower girl sighed. The male brunette has been acting strange all morning. Something was definitely up. Setting the thoughts aside, Aerith looked up again. "By the way, have you girls seen Yuffie? She's never this late before." She asked with a worried tone in her voice.

Tifa and Rinoa exchanged confused looks and shrugged. "Nope. Sorry."

The brunette sighed again. Yuffie was never late for school and this worried the flower girl a lot. Maybe the raven-haired girl had done something wrong, TOTALLY wrong. And she would have to take reasonability for what had happened again. After all, she DID promised her mother she would take care of that "ninja". The girl was just never herself ever since that Zack's unfortunate death.

She knew it had a great impact on her and yet, she couldn't do anything about it. Yuffie was like a sister to her. If anything happened to her, Aerith swore she couldn't even live anymore.

"Are you sure you guys haven't seen her?" The brunette asked again.

Tifa furrowed her brows together and rubbed her chin, appeared to be in deep thought. "Well…now that you mentioned it. I DID see her just now at the entrance. She was with this really cute guy."

Aerith's jaw dropped. "W-what did you say?!"

"Yeah. She was with this cute guy. They were walking together. Then never saw her again," exclaimed Tifa. "Must be her boyfriend. I had to admit. Even I will fall for a cutie like him anytime."

Rinoa giggled. And Aerith fainted.

* * *

It was tiring really. Whoever knew that this can be such hard work? Parading through the halls was never Cloud's KIND of thing but his stupid but clever cousin enjoyed it. A lot. Seriously, girls these days. Nobody could understand them. He know he won't. It would be too troublesome. The blonde had been spending the past hour trying to hide himself behind Yuffie every time whenever people start staring or whispering.

Cloud wondered what's so interesting about this. They never seen a transformation before? Of course, he still doubt they knew it was him already. Although Yuffie told the blonde she can't wait to look at their faces when they knew it was the school's infamous book worm. _Hah! Take that Seifer! Let's see what you're going to do with me now!_

But still, it probably won't change anything. Cloud is still himself, despite what he looked like now. There was no way that people would start liking him just because he changed his look. Following Yuffie, the blonde walked past the others and headed towards the direction of his locker. And just as what he had predicted earlier, Seifer stood there waiting with the ever huge grin on his face. Probably having a mental meeting in his mind on how to screw him again.

"Hey there cutie. What brings you here to Radiant High?"

Cloud guessed not. Nobody and he meant nobody has ever called me that before. It sounded weird but nice. But seeing it coming out of Seifer's mouth, Cloud did have to say that it made me feel like puking. Big time.

Jolting, Cloud was near to having a mental breakdown when Yuffie chose to open her mouth and chirped, "Hi Seifer!"

Seifer barely even grunted. "So where's your puny cousin. He's late and I did like to show him a thing or two for making Master Seifer when he comes later."

Yuffie bit the bottom of her lip and stated, "That won't be necessary since C-"

Before Yuffie could finish the sentence, Cloud sprung into action. The blonde immediately clasped her mouth shut, smiled weakly at Seifer who blinked in confusion before dragging her off towards the other end of the corridor. He looked frantically around the area to make sure no one was there except for Mr. Highwind who was currently in his office, marking some exam papers, cursing every now and then about how stupid the fucking brats are since none of them got the answers right.

The raven-haired girl spun free from his grip and almost shouted out. "Cloud! I was going to-"

"Whatever you're thinking. NO!"

"But-"

"No buts this time. If Seifer knew that it was me. I would have been more than dead. I can just picture his face now, mocking me, laughing at me at how stupid I was to think that it would even work in the first place or…"

"Fall head over heels for you too."

"YUFFIE!"

The raven-haired girl giggled exasperatedly, clasping her hands together as she did so. "Have you notice the way Seifer looked at you just now? He was practically drooling!" she squealed like she was some kind of a mad fan girl. Her voice then dropped into a low whisper. "Or probably mentally screwing you in his mind."

Okay…He really doesn't feel so good right now. Cloud felt like he was son the verge of loosing his insanity already. "Probably the end of the world…if he knew it was me." Cloud lowered his head and said grimly. He knew he was exaggerating but what if it really happen? The blonde agreed readily to this transformation to get a new reputation here not to get the same old life he had before.

Noticing the worried look on her cousin's face, Yuffie smiled and reassured him one more time, patting his shoulders. "We're not over with this yet so stop being such a paranoid. If you want to win here, you got to be confident."

The blonde nodded, straightening his clothes so that it looked nice, not ruffled like just now when a thousand of people swarmed in on him.

"Now…" The raven-haired girl began in a thoughtful manner. "Since no one is bugging you right now. How about we take some pictures?"

"Why? I thought you have my pictures already." The blonde asked, quirking his eyebrow in confusion.

"Well...about that. That's the old one. I did like some new faces of my very favorite cousin too." She winked.

A blush crept its way to Cloud's pale cheek as he laughed nervously. "Sure. I guess."

Yuffie cheered and took out her portable digital camera, took a few snapshots of Cloud before exclaiming lout loud happily. "Yay!"

"Huh?"

"These pictures will get me a fortune!" she exclaimed cheerfully, skipping around the corridor in an enthusiastic manner. Confused at first, then everything was starting to fall into place. Feeling his anger reaching its peak, he deadpanned. "Yuffie. Was that why you asked me to follow you through the halls?"

"Well, yeah. Since now, everyone knew you so I don't have to advertise again. Now I can get that camcorder I always wanted!" She laughed, scratching the back of her head nervously.

"Yuffie…" Cloud deadpanned once more. "You used me!"

"Well, you earned your place here and I got my camcorder. We got a two in one win here, Cloudster. Not even you can complain about that."

Cloud glowered angrily at her before walking away furiously, ignoring his cousin's shouts. Yuffie's right about the two in one win thing so why he was this getting so worked up for? In his determination to get away from everyone, the blonde ran and bumped into someone with a loud yelp. Falling bottom first onto the floor, Cloud looked up and angrily cursed, "Are you blind or what? Can't you see where…"

His voice trailed off as surprised blue orbs locked into annoyed gray orbs which belonged to the one and only, Squall Leonheart.

* * *

I just feel like ending it there so don't kill me on the cliffhanger thing. :D

**Answering Reviews:**

Xephlyn: Thanks for poitning out my mistakes. I owe you one!

Crazylucy88: I know. I was having a hard time to describe Cloud as a nerd. -shudders-

NatsuTsuki: Thank you for volunteering to be my beta! XD But I feel like I want to try this out on my own so when the grammar is really getting bad...maybe I can go to you then?

**Review please?**


	3. Of heartbreaks and Torture

**A New Life**

Disclaimer: Before I actually denied, let's just say that Axel threatened to torch down my comfortable house before ripping my only computer apart IF I don't send him a nude Roxas by noon. So god? Kill me now!

A/N: After like a whole of many months, I finally realized that I spelt Leon's name wrongly. It was supposed to be Leonhart, not Leonheart. There was only 1 'e' in his name. How stupid of me! Again, a late chapter. It's like a curse so that I could only update once a month… Sorry for that.

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Shit.

This was NOT what he expected earlier. This was definitely NOT what he had dreaded all this time. This was absolutely out of the count and fuck, this was definitely and absolutely what Cloud had meant by a 'good' impression. The blonde had just fallen onto the floor; let's not forget the butt first policy, due to an impact which he didn't know whether to be thankful or cursed god for landing him in this awkward situation for.

In his desperate blind haste to get away from everything, Cloud wasn't looking wherever he was going and accidentally bumped into his prince without knowing too. The blonde just blindly cursed angrily without looking up. But when he did lift his head up to see who the person was, he halted in his movements. Blue deep sea orbs stared into annoyed grey ones.

That was when Cloud figured that his life was crashing down onto him slowly and painfully. Time seemed to have stop for them as they stared at each other with Cloud's mouth opened like there was no tomorrow. A loud feminine voice called out from the crowds which was surrounding them, snapping the two out of their trance.

Cold stormy gray eyes trailed up from deep sea orbs to see Yuffie whose clothes looked which looked like she has just forced herself out of the crowd. Arching an eyebrow, Leon continued to stand there like a statue which everyone should worship. Yuffie who was now grasping her knees, panted for breath. Damn. Who knew that Cloud could run so fast in this crowd?

After a minute or two, she finally brought herself to stand up straight and cleared her voice. "Cloud where have you been?" Looking down again, she nearly screamed. "OH MY GOD! Cloud who did to you?! What the hell happened?!"

Cloud barely even nodded before he was pulled back onto his feet. He turned a multiple shades of red when he saw that the crowd was staring intently at them. Yuffie's near to screaming voice had attracted their full attention. The blonde lowered his head while dusting his shirt and straightening his outfit. He brought himself to move another inch closer to his cousin, nudging her with his elbow, begging her to get away from here.

He couldn't stay here for another second longer or else his heart would really burst. Yuffie paid no heed to her cousin's pleas. Instead, she darted her eyes to the spot where Leon was standing at that moment. Nobody noticed a mischievous smirk forming on her bubbly face. "Oh, hi Leon! Didn't see you there!"

Leon nodded briefly. His eyes still did not leave Cloud, making Yuffie more anticipated than the usual. The atmosphere was getting thicker enough to suffocate Cloud. His heart was pumping blood loudly to all parts of his entire body. If he ever brought himself to close his eyes tight, Cloud would have seen the images of the courses his gushing blood was taking, slamming into every artery and vein hardly against the corner.

Again, nobody noticed that the raven-haired girl's eyes were gleaming unusually as she slowly advanced to Leon's side. Cloud squeaked as he felt that Yuffie was walking away from him, still refusing the urge to lift his head up into the open. He had suffered from enough embarrassments already. This was the worse.

"So Leon, what brings you here?" asked Yuffie, trying to start a conversation. "This is Cloud, the cousin who was I was talking about the other day. He's in the same class as you. Remember?"

He simply nodded.

Cloud cringed. _So Yuffie told the guy of his dreams about him already? _He lowered his head even more in embarrassment, wondering about what Yuffie had said about him.

"Still, you should know him already since you two are sitting near to each other." She laughed.

"Should I?" Leon's sudden reply in his low husky voice caught everyone off guard. Cloud's head immediately shot up to its usual position, his eyes widening in surprised at the sudden answer. His world really came crashing down to him, leaving him alone, stranded in the darkness. Yuffie was rooted to the spot as she tried again to register what Leon had said in her mind.

Without saying anything else, Leon proceeded to move past her and Cloud, his shoulders brushed against Cloud's. The crowd soon dispersed after that, leaving Yuffie and Cloud standing alone in the empty hall.

_Smooth move, Strife. That was a real smooth move you pulled back there. I should definitely give you an award for it._

The blonde felt like he wanted to cry. His dampened and broken heart was still actively slamming against his rib cage wildly and his voice was stuck in his throat, not wanting to come out all the while he was staring at the floor blankly.

"_Should I?" _

The sentence was swirling around in his head, not wanting to leave the poor heartbroken boy alone. He was right. Looks never mattered in this world, especially to one Leonhart. He had wished for the impossible and this was the consequences he was forced to admit. He should have listen to his mother about the whole makeover thing. He should just BE himself, not someone else. Feeling disgusted at himself, Cloud knew this whole idea was stupid.

At least he got what he wanted. Leon had stared at him more then once. It was enough. Feeling like a headache is going to overthrow him that very minute, Cloud staggered back lifelessly to god knows where. He didn't feel like going to class at that moment. He didn't have the nerve to look at Leon's face again.

-------------

Yuffie pitied her cousin. She really did. Okay so what? She miscalculated. No one ever in the matchmaking world had expected that coming. Feeling guilty for starting the whole thing off, her shoulders dropped. Placing her head on the palm on her hand, Cid Highwind's lecture on pressure failed to reach her ears. She kept on looking back at her cousin's empty seat before shifting her eyes back to Leon again, who was scribbling notes down his notebook.

Her gaze softened as she stared back at her cousin's empty seat once more. Her thoughts were filled with questions on whether this transformation was doing him good or not. Cloud never had any friends. She was his only one. And this project was going to get him some friends. She was so sure of it. But the plan backfired.

Leon sounded like he hated Cloud back then. Raising her hand to ruffle her hair violently, Yuffie cursed. Oh well, the plan was still going on. After all, she was a genius at this genre. She never failed at this. So a bit of miscalculation won't hurt right? She was so damn sure that it was going to work. So be it.

Organizing a new plan in her head, Yuffie made a mental note to speak with Rinoa and Tifa later. She definitely needed their full cooperation with this one. But first, she needed to get rid of their most difficult obstacle of all – Aerith.

--------------

Sora blinked softly as Roxas slammed his hands onto the table angrily before storming out of the classroom the way he came in by kicking the door open. Riku let out another groan and a sigh before slouching dejectedly into his seat. The meeting was a failure.

"Well, at least that kept him going." Riku muttered, his brows furrowing together.

Sora sighed and walked over to his boyfriend's side. The boy placed his hands on Riku's scalp and helped the silver-haired boy cool down by rubbing and massaging his temples. Sora piped up, "Don't worry, Riku. I'm sure Roxas's not that angry."

Riku snorted. "Tell that to Axel who's rotting in the sick bay now."

Sora blinked again, letting out a soft chuckle. "Riku!" he punched lightly at Riku's elbow who didn't bother to move at that point. The older boy just sat there with his face scrunched up in an ugly manner, obviously not very happy at Roxas's behaviour.

"I'm sure Axel's fine. Nothing to worry about."

Riku just couldn't help but scoff at his boyfriend's remark. "Fine? FINE? You call that fine? Axel has just got a fist shoved right onto his face before twisted into a three hundred and sixty flip in the air and getting his ass kicked by that sick demented brother of yours. So by now as I _calculated,_ he should have gotten three broken bones, him not be able to reproduce for another god knows years and a broken rib cage! AND GOD! YOU CALLED THAT FINE?!"

Sora cringed at the sudden raise of tone of Riku's voice, wishing that he never had said that. Axel was one of Riku's best friends and he knew that Riku was hurt right now. Hell, it would be a miracle if Axel even survived at that point. What his twin brother had done was…killing. The young brunette succumbed to swinging his skinny arms around his lover's neck, rubbing his face into the silver-haired boy's hair.

"Well, it was our fault for bringing up that plan in the first place. I'm sure he will be fine." Sora said one more time, calming the other's intensified anger. "This isn't the first time Axel got landed in the sick bay by Roxas. If his injuries are that worse, he would now be in the hospital screaming for his life!"

The older boy rubbed his chin as if he was in deep thought. Resting his head on his left palm, he scowled miserably. "I guess you're right…" He grumbled.

The smaller brunette perked up at that comment. "I have got to look for Roxas…Don't even want to think of the chaos he will do if I left him alone like that."

"Destroy the whole school. Kill the entire student population. And another thing he's really good at. Making people not have the rights to reproduce anymore." Riku grumbled again, crossing his arms. It was obvious to Sora that he was still mad about the incident earlier. "I do hope he gets it right at his head."

"Riku!" Sora shouted, clearly offended by his lover's attitude towards his brother. "It was our fault in the first place. We shouldn't have played him like that!"

He was only awarded with an insignificant grunt. Hurt, Sora quickly rushed out of the classroom without looking back, narrowing missing the guilty look on Riku's face.

---------

After an hour of running around the school like a mad person searching for his lost puppy, Sora soon found Roxas, his twin brother, sitting grimly in the yard. His brows were furrowed together and his left hand lazily threw stones blindly against the fence which could only mean one thing. He was still mad about the whole incident.

At first, Sora was reluctant about the whole idea on leaving his brother alone to cool off. He gazed at his furious brother and without further ado, decided to go near him and talked to him. "Hey." Sora chided cheerfully, maybe a tad bit too cheerful.

Roxas slowly moved his head in Sora's direction before quickly turning back. Scowling miserably, he continued with his stone-throwing practice, mentally tracing Axel's figure on the fence. Fuming, he aimed for the head but instead it hits his neck. He aimed for the abdomen but instead, the stupid stone hits his crotch. Not that Roxas was complaining or anything.

He stifled an evil laugh when the stone hits Axel's private part. Ah yes. He could picture it in his mind right now, Axel squirming around on the ground screaming for mercy while he tortured the red head even more. He could ask Wonder Boy to help. Ah and probably even Hayner. He couldn't bear to leave out his best friend on an important quest like this.

Sora made a mental note to himself not to approach his brother when Roxas was in his angst mode.

"You still mad?" Sora inquired, seating himself comfortably beside the murderous blonde.

"I'm not. Who said I am?" He forced through gritted teeth, tightening his grip on the stone he was holding. "I was never angry. I was never mad. Which asshole said I was?" He added, forcing a smile at Sora's direction.

"Okay…" The brunette said. "I'll take that as a yes."

There was a brief pause as Roxas continued to fling the stones across the yard, silently cursing since it missed again, Axel's noodle-head.

"Look Roxas. Riku was just trying to help." Sora explained wholeheartedly. Roxas and Riku never was happy with each other. They fight during lunch, dinner, and even during class. The teacher even had to separate them. But doing so didn't help at all since it only caused more conflicts, more artificially human-destroyed tables and chairs, broken legs and arms and a teacher who wanted no more than to commit suicide.

Those two will never ever agree on anything. They argued over almost even the simplest things such as a rubber band which was just minding its own business.

"_That's it. Who left this on the table again?" Sora deadpanned, glaring at the two occupants in the house. Roxas was lying on his favorite couch, flipping the magazine pages back and forth while Riku was busy switching the television on and off to kill off his boredom. The both automatically pointed accusing fingers at the opposite which soon got out of hand…after sometime._

"_No you did it, dickhead." Roxas growled, glaring at the other boy._

_Riku snarled. "Not me! You did it, small fry!"_

"_Who you calling a small fry, asshole!"_

"_You, who else? I don't see anybody as short as you're squirming down my pants."_

_Sora refused the sudden urge to roll his eyes at that remark._

_Turning a deep shade of red, Roxas growled and launched himself on top of Riku, desperately trying to strangle the older boy in one go._

_While they were fighting, Sora indulged himself in a tasty treat on the sofa while switching the channels to watch his favorite mouse in action – Mickey Mouse._

"He ruined my life. Wreck my reputation. And you called that help?!" Roxas was restraining himself from slamming the stone onto the ground and jumped on it repeatedly. "Not to mention letting that dickhead taking advantage of me!" He couldn't help but to blush at the phrase.

Sora sighed once more. "I know that we're wrong to set you up on that blind date just like that. Riku's sorry and I'm sorry too."

The blond's eyes were fixed on the ground, watching the ants moving around in interest. "Yeah right. No point in being optimistic about everything. The day Riku apologized is when he knew that he lost to the one and only Roxas the Great. He did be singing and doing a belly dance right in front of public."

"Roxas…"

"He's one those lowlife creatures to venture on earth. Why I ought to squash him like-" Roxas began, punching his fist onto the ground furiously.

"Roxas! Don't talk about Riku like that! He was only trying to help! If only you would just give Axel a chance!"

"Never ever talk about that jerk in front of me again! If I see him one more time, I'll…I'll…" Roxas stammered.

Sora placed his hands on his hips, quirking an eyebrow at his twin. "You'll do what?"

"There's no freaking way we'll be together! I hate him with all my entire life!" Roxas screamed. A blush crept its way to his face as he continued on, "That…that asshole molesst me in public, took advantage of me, kiss me when I was naïve-!"

"Naïve? I almost forgot you got that with all that trashing." Sora interrupted.

Roxas glared. "Shut up."

"You're actually lucky to have a guy like Axel running after you like that. Remember those guys who chased you?"

Roxas nodded slowly. "They finally gave up after I give them a good kicking."

"So get what I mean now? No matter how much time you hurt Axel's feelings, he never gave up on you. That already showed how much he loves you. But you, being the stubborn type just won't listen to what he has to say." Sora paused. "Look, I don't care who you end up with just as long as you're happy."

It was true. Roxas remembered the times when Axel had tried to confess his feelings towards him only to have the blond cruelly rejected him or chucked the red head out of the two storey window. Axel still never gave up on that hope to get Roxas to fall in love with him. Maybe he should really give him a chance, not that he actually admitted he liked him. Of course not! But still, that jerk just won't learn his lesson. He wants to play rough? Fine. He will play with him until the very end.

And that goes the same for Riku too. The twins hugged each other, apologizing repeatedly. They were just about to call him when they heard repeated curses just around the corner. They exchanged curious looks at each other, poking their little head at the corner to see who it was.

"Sora?" Roxas started after giving it much thought.

"Yeah?"

"That's Yuffie. Right?"

"Yeah. I wonder what's she's doing with Rinoa and Tifa over there."

-------------

"Ready girls?"

Tifa giggled enthusiastically. "I'm ready, Commander Yuffie! This is going to be so much fun!"

"Ready when you're, Commander!" Rinoa piped in, trying to minimize the volume of her laughter. "I can see the looks on their faces now! God!"

"Okay troops! Let's not make this a failure!" Yuffie squealed. "Let's get into some hot male and male action!"

The girls cheered and went on their separate ways, missing the two boys' confused faces, wondering what mischief the famous trio was onto now.

-----------

Again, ended it there. At least the cliffhanger's not worse that the previous chapter, right? Leon's being an asshole while Cloud's in his emo state again, wondering what he had done wrong. In the next chapter, Aerith got ambushed, Leon got gagged, and the golden trio strikes! Oh and Axel _accidentally_ walked into a heated couple! Dang, it's rated M already people!

I thanked you all for the wonderful reviews I'm getting. But I'm a bit saddened since some readers put this story on their favorite lists but never quite bothered to leave a review on it. It's nice actually to hear from someone as great like you! A short comment is nice but those who take time to write a whole paragraph long of review is BETTER! So **please review!** :D

Thanks for all the cookies! I love you all!


	4. Ready and Action!

**A New Life**

Disclaimer: I don't own Cloud's pants, sadly. D:

A/N: I'm sorry for the lateness of this chapter. COLLEGE LIFE has been SO demanding lately that I begin to pull back my personal time to make way for home works, tests and -shudders- fucking assignments. Seriously, they just NEVER stops coming. You did think they stop, but they just won't.

This chapter is dedicated to an anonymous reviewer named **OKANI**! Her review motivated me to start writing on this chapter and got it done in like two days time! Besides, **happy belated birthday to you, Okani!**

-----------

The morning sunlight's rays penetrated through the small fraction of Cloud's bedroom window which wasn't covered by the chocobo-designed curtains and shone onto Cloud's sleeping face straight on. The blonde furrowed his closed eyes, pulled up his blanket to cover his face and turned to the other side to block the incoming sunlight. He hugged himself tightly and smacked his lips before snuggling into the pillow.

He was at peace, heaven to be exact. No one was there to bother him. No one was there to laugh at him and definitely no cute brunettes to take his breath away and make him turn three hundred and sixty degrees at the mention of that wonderful name. So Cloud was feeling content at himself right now. There was no one there except for his warm blanket, pillow and his bed.

That was until he heard loud footsteps banging loudly onto the staircase made him dread his peace even more. The blonde groaned loudly into his pillow. He knew who that was although he tried to not know it. Maybe it was his mother being hyper since she drank four cups of cocoa the other night but Cloud knew that it wasn't her. He tightened his blanket around himself more. He knew better than to ask who that was.

The footsteps were getting nearer to his room and Cloud grimaced. The door to his messy bedroom kicked open and a high pitched female (Cloud gulped at this point) voice screamed until Cloud felt that his eardrums were almost being ripped out of him. Again, the ALMOST being keyword here because if Yuffie screamed one more time to get him out of bed. He will really rip her mouth out.

Sure enough, no sooner than later, the door to his room was suddenly kicked open and a rather cheerful Yuffie strode in. Apparently, no one took his "**Please do not disturb**" sign seriously. He really needed to hang something meaner on his bedroom's door. Cloud tried to fake his sleep but somehow, it wasn't enough to fool the raven haired girl since Yuffie's face was already a few inches from his, observing Cloud's surprised face intently on top of it.

"You know Cloud." She began, eyeing his face and rubbing her chin as if appearing to be in deep thoughts. "I don't think there's anything wrong with your face or your looks for that matter. I'm sure that Leon will definitely give you a chance if he sees you this way. All sprawled out and ready to be pounce on."

Cloud did the only thing that was registered in his mind. He threw the covers off him and Yuffie along with it. The poor girl nearly fell and knocked her head if it wasn't for her claimed "ninja" instincts. She pouted at Cloud who was blushing madly than before and was clutching his pillow protectively. Trying her best not to laugh out loud at her cousin, she brought herself to sit on the blonde's bed, smiling mischievously at him as she did so.

The blonde merely stared at her in disbelief, wondering what sort of plans she was up to now. Knowing Yuffie, it won't be good for him. To Cloud, everything right now was like a huge nightmare to him. The way his crush, Leon shrugged him off just like that was enough to make him want to commit suicide but as long as Yuffie's on the case, guess that's not going to happen soon.

Right now, Cloud needed peace and quiet in order to think and to carefully register what _was_ going on at the moment. His mind was completely blurred and Yuffie didn't help him with that much. The blonde brushed his bangs aside and sighed. He really doesn't know what to do next. He had skipped classes yesterday just to avoid running into Leon but he just couldn't skip classes again!

His mother will kill him. His teachers will kill him. Not to mention that he needed a good record so he could get into a good College. Noticing her cousin's dilemma, Yuffie smacked her lips and scooted closer to Cloud. "You can't hide from him forever." She stated firmly, snatching the pillow off him.

Cloud groaned at the loss of his pillow (which Yuffie promptly raised her brows at but said nothing). He gave another sad sigh and said, "I really am so confused…I don't know what to do anymore…"

"Well, the least you could do is to not go around and stalk him. Maybe that was the reason he threw you off in the first place." Yuffie almost giggled at that.

Memories of Cloud hiding in all sorts of spots waltzed into her mind at that moment. She had caught the teen in several kinds of embarrassing situations. She remembered when Cloud used to always dress up as a Moogle selling balloons to the kids who passed by just because Leon was working in Car Shop next to his workplace. She almost swooned at that. Ah…the things that love can do to people.

Cloud gave a rather small growl, burying his head in his knees, clearly embarrassed by now. "That was the only I could get closed to him!" he protested while Yuffie just laughed in respond. Honestly! Her cousin was just too adorable.

Puffing up her chest, she patted the blonde courageously on his back. Cloud swore he could see the gleam in her eyes. Let's just say it's a sign. A very dreadful sign. The blonde tensed up immediately. He gave her a look. "Just what are you thinking right now?"

"Oh nothing you should bother with. Seriously, you got a problem, Cloud. You just like being a paranoid and you think too much. Maybe Leon's just too busy to talk to you."

"You know well what he meant! I told you he never noticed me!"

Yuffie rolled her eyes. "With that kind of outfit and those huge glasses, no one is going to notice you anytime soon." She said, sticking out her tongue at him. "But thank god that I'm on the job! You see, Cloudy boy. As long as I'm here! No need to worry about tall, dark and handsome! I'll make sure you get him or die trying! I didn't get a sure A plus in matchmaking for no reason at all you know."

Yuffie gave him that type of look again. And that was what worried Cloud in the first place. "Don't be such a worrywart!" She laughed, standing on fours on the bed. "Why don't you ask Rinoa for advice? She dated Leon before didn't she?"

Cloud's shoulders dropped. It was true that Rinoa did dated Leon before. After all, Rinoa was the one who latched herself onto Leon and told the entire school that she was going to be Leon's girlfriend and no one could touch him. The brunette didn't have much say in it but he obliged anyway. He had scowled when she confessed. It wasn't like Rinoa to just give up like that. Somehow, those two just looked perfect for each other.

And somehow, Cloud couldn't help but feel jealous just by looking at them like that. It was painful to watch. No one knew what happened after that but it was said that they broke up after two months with a crying Rinoa appearing at Aerith's doorstep. Typically, she soon got over it and was still very good friends with Leon despite what had happened before.

Earning no respond from the other boy, Yuffie stopped in her movements and eyed the latter warily. "You okay?" Cloud merely shrugged in reply.

Suddenly, realization hit her. She blinked for a few moments before rolling on the bed with laughter. She gasped in between breaths as she clutched her sides rather painfully, nearly choking on her lack of air. "Don-don't tell you're jealous!" She forced the words out of her mouths in small gasps, still chuckling madly.

"Shut up!" He growled. Blushing furiously now, Cloud slipped back into his covers and tightened it over him. Yuffie's laughter soon died but the giggling was still there. Not that he was mean or anything, sometimes he wished that the girl would just go die as well. She was obviously trying to get onto his nerves and was doing a very good job at that too.

"There's nothing going on with them anymore! God! I wonder how much would they charge for your jealousy picture?" She thought out loud.

This prompted the blonde to sit upright and glared at the girl with the "what the hell are you talking about" glare. Yuffie grin grew so large that it almost rivaled that of a Cheshire's cat.

"After you left yesterday, the school got into a huge ruckus." What she said next almost made Cloud had a heart attack. "Congratulations Cloud. You just shoot yourself up to the popularities. Look! They even made a heart-shaped membership card with your blushing picture on it! Neat huh?" she squealed out loud in amusement.

He stared at her in a horrified manner.

It took about two minutes for Cloud to actually get out of his shock and another one minute to permanently ban Yuffie from his house.

----------------

"Commander mam! Cadet Rinoa here reporting for duty!"

"How's the situation, soldier?"

"The target already fell for it and is now moving to the area in approximately thirty minutes. I'll escort the target there."

"Good! And the enemy?"

"Gagged and locked in the basement!"

"Great job, soldier! You win another badge!"

"Cadet Tifa is now in the area awaiting further orders mam!"

"I'll get to her later."

"It's very lucky of us to get this far without being found."

"Totally. Today is the perfect day for us to carry out the plan."

"Yeah. So how's your side doing?"

_Giggles. _"Pretty good if I say so myself. Now I'll have to get him to that area in thirty minutes. Can stall the big guy for me?"

"Of course." _Laugh. _"God! I never have this much fun since you decided to hook Riku and Sora together!"

"Hell yeah! Those two were a pain at first since you know Riku being a complete asshole and so."

"Sora was so innocent back then."

_Giggles_. "Not anymore. I believe Riku managed to nail the poor guy before they even got together."

"Thank god Roxas didn't know."

"Yeah or else Riku is SO dead."

_CRASH!_

"Rinoa? Who's that?"

"Oh just cutesy Leon here getting impatient. Got to go. Remember! Thirty minutes."

_Click. _

----------------

Squall Leonhart was not a patient person and definitely not one to go on unwanted trips. He was calm, cool and collected and would never ever shout at a girl, especially a girl with black hair up to her shoulders and who was now giggling madly to herself. He had received an urgent phone call from Rinoa earlier. Thinking it was some sort of emergency, he had immediately drove here in his car, not to mention almost slamming the door down since Rinoa didn't answer his call or even the door.

Almost panicking (although he didn't show it), he was about to call the police when the door suddenly open and a cheerful black-haired girl greeted him. Leon again almost tried not to strangle the girl for making him lose his calm. The girl was lucky today, well…everyday actually. He just couldn't bring himself to hurt the girl.

That one look from her after they broke up had stopped his world from moving and he had been afraid of it ever since. The painful look on her face made his heart skipped a beat. The tears that fell from her eyes was like a never-ending rain for him. It was too much to bear. The brunette knew she was breaking down at the moment. The light was gone from her eyes.

She was the one who brought up the break-up. Yet, she was the one who was crying, not him, but her. Leon didn't even say anything. He briefly nodded to every confession that Rinoa had made. Coward. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know what a normal man would do if he's in his own situation. He had watched her ran off without stopping her at all.

Thankfully, things seemed to lighten up a bit. Rinoa got her heart warming smile back. As for Leon? Let's just say that he was the same as ever. They remained being close friends ever since.

The brunette tapped his foot impatiently, waiting the girl to pay attention to him. Finally, as if she saw Leon for the first time, Rinoa flung her arms over Leon, crying out his name in delight. "Squall! You came!"

Leon rolled his eyes.

"I was already here moments ago. You let me in, remember?" He stated, leaning on the wall with his arms crossed.

Rinoa stuck out her tongue childishly at him and retorted, "It won't hurt to say it again."

Leon again narrowed his eyes. "Leon, the name's **Leon**.'" He said it dully as if he had said it more than a million times already. Seriously, that girl really needs to work on her memorizing skills. "You should have _remembered_ it by now."

Rinoa giggled. "Right. _Leon._ I thought you might get over it by now."

Silence greeted her instead. She sighed in defeat. It was clear that he didn't want to venture more into this conversation.

"Get to the point." He ordered. Leon moved into a standing position, eyeing the black-haired girl warily.

Rinoa smiled another one of her trademark smiles. It was typical of Leon to act like this. "Do me a favor."

"What?" He asked cautiously, giving her a look.

Placing her hands on her hips, she glared at Leon. "Why do you always think that I'm up to no good?" She huffed unenthusiastically.

He almost snorted at that. He was about to explain it to her. Seriously, Yuffie influenced her too much. Instead, he chose to raise his eyebrow.

Throwing her hands up in frustration, Rinoa groaned. "I swear I'm not up to anything! I just need some help! Need to get to Seventh Heaven fast! My parents are away so…"

Leon nodded calmly. The brunette advanced to the entrance and swung the door open. Gesturing the girl to his car, he sighed. "You can tell me all about it on the way."

"Thanks." Rinoa smiled when in fact, she was cheering victoriously in her mind.

----------------

"Today is a holiday! Besides! There's no homework!" Yuffie begged. The self-claimed ex-ninja had been trying to convince her cousin into a certain trip which needed to be done soon. The dead line was in twenty-minutes so she needed to act fast! But damn Cloud for being in his angst mode now! She cursed inwardly.

"No." The blonde stated grimly, still cuddling the pillow. He wasn't in a mood to go out now. First, they were having this near-to-serious conversation this morning and then, Yuffie suddenly asked him to go meet her friend in this place. "Why don't you go meet him?" He eyed her warily.

"Of course not! He confessed his love to me several months ago and it's awkward for me to meet up with him. We haven't seen each other in a while." She lied. Quick to her tongue, she would do anything to get Cloud to go along with her plan. It was awful to lie but this was an emergency. She would apologize to Cloud later.

Cloud urged the girl to continue with a slight gesture, currently feeling very interested in this _friend_ of hers. "You never told me someone confessed to you! Is he nice?"

Yuffie turned her back on him and chuckled happily. _Oh well. It won't hurt to play along._ "Duh." She drawled. "He is like the nicest guy on the planet!"

She flicked her hair in a cool manner before sighing like a love struck girl.

"What's his name?" Cloud piped up from his seat.

Letting her menacing eyes moved all over the place, she quickly turned on her heels and bent down so her eye level met up with Cloud's. "It's a S-E-C-R-E-T." She added a giggle.

Cloud felt like his mind was about to explode from all of those questions which were circling around in his mind right now. He scowled and rested his chin on the pillow, practically begging for his cousin to tell him. "Come on, Yuff! Just tell me! I'm your only cousin!"

Yuffie laughed inwardly at this. Moving to seat beside the blonde, she ruffled his hair playfully. "My dear Cloudy. Just because you're my cousin, that's the reason why I'm letting you go in my place. Savvy?" She said calmly, fighting hard against her mind not to start rolling with laughter at Cloud's curious expression.

He was too much for her to handle. "Okay then." He finally agreed with a sigh. The blonde got onto his feet, stretching fully. "I think I'll go change."

"No! You look great!" Yuffie started. "Besides, there's not much time. Your date- I mean my date is waiting. So chop chop! We don't have all day you know!" She reached out and grabbed Cloud's hand and quickly pulled him out of the house ignoring the cries of protests being thrown at her.

Opening the door to her small Beetle, she shoved the poor blonde into the back seat before making her way into driver's seat. Cloud fell back with a yelp. He was so not enjoying this. Because, whenever Yuffie starts driving, she's like a ticking time bomb. That was the reason why her parents had banned her from driving.

Yuffie rubbed her hands together scarily (to Cloud) and grasped the steering wheel tight. Cloud gulped and started to scream out loud when an evil laugh escaped her lips. Pressing the accelerator hard, the small Beetle soon took off with a fast speed that had Cloud screaming for his life all the way.

After they arrived at the place, Yuffie smiled brightly as she turned to look behind. What greeted her wasn't surprising at all. It was amusing to say the least. She chuckled nervously, climbing out of the car to open the door for her cousin. For Cloud, he swore he would never ever EVER let Yuffie drive again! The poor blonde was practically half dead when he staggered lifelessly out of the car.

His usual rosy cheeks had gone pale. His bright deep sea blue eyes had lost all sorts of life in them. So yeah. Cloud looked like a walking zombie. She giggled at that. Regathering the rest of his strength left, he brought himself to glare at that girl one more time before saying in a very tired manner. "I'm never ever letting you drive again."

And he definitely wouldn't.

The raven-haired girl gave a small pout, slipping behind the latter. "I wasn't that bad."

"Bad enough to get your license revoked." Cloud yawned softly. Obviously, he was so eager to get this done with so he could go home straight to bed. He was too tired since him and Yuffie had spent yesterday night awake gossiping about people. God. He really does act like a girl sometimes. Well, being around Yuffie for a long time, it was no deal that he became like this.

"It was only once!"

"And there's one time when you got fined for speed driving and another when you crashed into that store. It's lucky that you're still alive here."

Yuffie was about to open her mouth to retort when her cell phone rang. Grabbing the cell phone from her side pocket, she flipped it open and said, "Yuffie here! What's up?"

Cloud just stared at her in disbelief as he watched the girl's expression changed from irritation to gleeful in just a few minutes before turning back into frustration again. He sighed.

"Seriously?" Her eye bulged unexpectedly. "Oh my god! Talk to you later!"

Again, she grabbed Cloud by the hand and started pulling him in the direction of a classy restaurant. "Come on! We're going to be late!" Swinging the door open, she pushed the confused blonde in and settled him down onto the seat. "Wait here. He's going to be here soon. You know what to say right? Just give me whatever's he's giving you later. Have fun Cloudster!" She grinned; turning on her heels to run off in the other direction.

Cloud stood up from his seat and shouted from his booth. "Wait!" he sighed in frustration when the girl was nowhere to be seen.

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"Basically, you want me to meet this friend of yours to give him this bouquet of roses." Leon said in an irritated manner.

"Yep. I wanted to give it to him myself but I can't. You see. I promised Tifa and Yuffie to go hiking with them. And I'm late." Rinoa replied, giving him a small pat on the back. She went on to tie a red band around into a ribbon around his arm. She continued on. "Be on the look out for a blonde. Oh and the table is number seven. Remember! Seven! Have a dinner with him and be nice. And most importantly…" she giggled. "...have fun!"

With that said, she shoved him into the restaurant before running off herself. Leon sighed. _Why the hell does she keep on getting him into things like this?_ Looking around, he felt heated gazes on him but one fended then off. He felt ridiculous holding a bouquet of roses on one hand and looking blank on the next.

Thinking that he wouldn't make any progresses by just standing there, Leon made his way around the restaurant. It wasn't that big and it wasn't that small either so it was easy for him to find the table. Soon, his grey eyes caught sight of a blonde on the far-end booth. Since he was behind him, Leon couldn't make out if it was the guy who's Rinoa was talking about.

There was only one way to find out. He moved to that booth. At the same time, he couldn't help but to wonder that he had seen that figure somewhere before.

----------------

Settling himself onto his seat again, Cloud darted his eyes from the plate number seven on the table to his surroundings hoping to see a guy wearing a pink flower or something like that. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

Yuffie didn't tell him much. She just said…

"Be on the look out for a guy with roses and a red ribbon. You'll get him then!"

However, he couldn't help but wonder why she was laughing so hard back then. Setting the thoughts aside, Cloud proceeded to look around hoping to find the said person but to no avail. He was about to give up and go home when a deep voice made his spine shivered and his heart skipped.

Frozen stiff, Cloud didn't want to look back nor did he want to move. _No! No! No! It couldn't be him! It just couldn't be him! There's no way he could be here! There's just no frigging way! Yuffie wouldn't- She just couldn't! _Realization soon hit him. The way she had giggled and laughed at his confusion, the way she had said those things had already sounded fishy to Cloud.

Since he was just too damn naïve, he had believed her. Damn that girl for being so manipulative! There was just no way that she could have been in love since it never did ran in her blood. She was the girl that was single and fuck, she was proud of her status. Realizing that he had been tricked into another one of her plans, Cloud let out a muffled yes.

Finally, he gathered enough courage to turn around, almost flinching at the sight.

Squall Leonhart was standing right behind him with the same cool but yet surprised expression on his face. He held a bouquet of roses on his right hand while a red ribbon was tied on his left.

The blonde nearly cried at the sight.

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Eight pages long. I think I'll kill myself. Sorry for the lateness! XD Please review!


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